Background

The mission of the Institute for Financial Literacy is to make effective financial literacy education available for all American adults.

The Institute accomplishes its mission by working with organizations to incorporate financial education into their existing services.  The Institute also provides direct delivery of financial counseling and education to the general public. As the national authority on adult financial education, the Institute advances professionalism and effectiveness in the field of financial literacy by setting the National Standards for Adult Financial Literacy Education™, hosting the Annual Conference on Financial Education™, maintaining the Library of Personal Finance™, and administering the Center for Financial Certifications™ and the Center for Consumer Financial Research™.

The Institute for Financial Literacy is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt non profit organization founded in 2002 in Portland, Maine.  The Institute is funded by program fees, private donations, and grants from public and private foundations. The Institute is an educational organization focused on presenting unbiased, neutral information to its clients and advancing professionalism and effectiveness in its field. The Institute does not create debt repayment plans, negotiate debts for its clients, or sell financial products of any type.

As a small organization with limited resources at the time of its founding in 2002, the Institute’s initial goal was to partner with other organizations that already had clients or members who would benefit from financial literacy education.  By teaching other organizations to provide financial literacy education to their clients, the Institute would be able to reach many more people than it could serve on its own.  By the end of 2002, the Institute had developed its first partnership, the Women’s Financial Literacy Project (“WFLP”), with the YWCAs of the New England Region. The WFLP utilized a “train the trainer” model in an effort to advance the financial literacy of the 150,000 women and girls served annually by the YWCA's in the New England Region.

The WFLP was followed in 2003 by a pilot project with the Lewiston Regional office of the Maine Bureau of Family Independence for the direct delivery of financial literacy education to Bureau clients in the ASPIRE Program. The ASPIRE Program is designed to help individuals obtain education that will help them improve their employment and financial opportunities. Financially empowering ASPIRE Program participants by advancing their personal financial literacy is an important step in improving their opportunities for financial stability. Due to state funding reallocations the program was not extended beyond the pilot phase.

In 2004, the Institute partnered with the Maine Adult and Community Education System to create the Financial Literacy for Adults in Maine project, referred to as Project FLAME. The purpose of this project is to promote adult financial literacy throughout Maine, and has the potential to reach significant numbers of Maine adults since approximately 1 in 10 Maine residents enrolls in an adult education program.  In addition, Project FLAME provides an opportunity to evaluate both the effectiveness of financial literacy education and its economic impact as measured by changes in personal net worth.

 The Institute was asked by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) to draft standards for adult financial education. These standards were intended to inform elements of the Uniform Debt Management Services Act which was then being drafted.  The Institute’s effort resulted in the National Standards for Adult Financial Literacy Education, originally released in 2004, and updated in 2007 to include benchmarks and a best practices guide.

The Institute also established the American Credit and Debt Management Education (ACaDeME) Project in 2004. Under the ACaDeME Project the Institute partners with consumer credit counseling, debt management and debt settlement agencies to advance the ability of adults to competently perform the basic tasks of managing their personal finances. The ACaDeME Project works to achieve this goal by providing effective financial literacy education, program evaluation and ongoing research. 

In 2005, the Institute was approved by the Executive Office of the United States Trustees (EOUST) and the Bankruptcy Administrators (BAs) to provide the pre-filing budget counseling and post-filing financial education required under the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA). Please note that approval by the EOUST and Bankruptcy Administrators does not endorse or assure the quality of an agency’s services. Under BAPCPA, most individuals filing for bankruptcy protection must complete a budget counseling session during the 180 day period prior to filing, and a financial education course after they file.  The Institute experienced significant growth between 2005 and 2007 as a result of providing these bankruptcy related services and is now among the top ten national providers. The Institute is now leveraging the experience and infrastructure gained through this effort to deliver financial counseling and education to the general public through distance learning.

In the fall of 2005, the Institute also officially opened the Library of Personal Finance, the only permanent collection of its kind in the United States.  The opening ceremony was attended by Congressman Tom Allen, Maine State Treasurer David Lamoine, Maine Securities Administrator Michael Colleran, and representatives from the offices of Senator Olympia Snowe, State Farm Insurance, Northeast Savings Bank, and Jr. Achievement of Maine.  Congressman Allen presented the Library with its first item, a “redline” of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, in recognition that the Act was the first Federal law mandating personal financial management courses for any segment of American society.

In 2006, the Institute hosted the first Annual Conference on Financial Education™ in Portland, Maine. This annual conference, held each fall, is a professional development opportunity for financial educators to network, learn about current trends, develop funding strategies and advance the cause of financial education.  At the 2007 Annual Conference, held in Dallas, Texas, the Institute presented the inaugural Excellence In Financial Literacy Education (“EIFLE”)™ Awards.  The EIFLEs are awarded on an annual basis in a variety of fields and recognize the efforts of individuals and organizations to advance the field of financial literacy education, including the Visa-sponsored Legislator of the Year. The 2007 EIFLE Visa Legislator of the Year was awarded to Congressman Rubén Hinojosa (D-TX).

Early on, the Institute’s experience with “train the trainer” models had exposed a need for a formal but practical training process for those that wanted to teach classes on financial literacy, whether they were community volunteers or professional teachers.  The Institute also identified a need for an independent, practical certification and training program for those interested in providing financial counseling to individuals. In response to these identified needs, in early 2006 the Institute established the Center for Financial Certifications™ to create and administer certification programs for those interested in counseling or educating people about financial literacy.  By mid 2006, the Center for Financial Certifications launched the Certified Personal Finance Counselor (CPFC)™ program. The CPFC was quickly recognized by states which require the certification or continuing education of credit counselors, and has been accepted for continuing education credit by several other programs, such as the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) Board of Standards.  In 2007 the Center for Financial Certifications launched the Certified Educator in Personal Finance (CEPF)™. As a division of the Institute for Financial Literacy with independent authority over its certification activities, the Center for Financial Certifications has steadily grown in stature and continues to develop new professional development opportunities for those in financial counseling, education, and related fields.